Sunday, April 13, 2014

We don't have a lot of
time right now, and I forgot my camera, but we had a great week. The highlight
of the week was definitely General Conference! We had a bunch of investigators
come to conference, which means that I had to watch it with them, which means
that I didn't really understand that much. But there were a lot of really good
talks. I liked the one where the guy talked about having 4 minutes in the whole
match. I've been out for 1.5 years, and our sisters are going home this week,
so it has been kind of surreal. I guess I only have 1 minute left in the
mission.

This week, my
companion is also leaving me to go to the Pest side of the city. I am staying
here to get my 4th companion in this same area. I've been here for almost 6
months! It will be exciting to see where I go in May (if I go anywhere, maybe
I'll spend the rest of my mission here). But I do get to stay here for Balázs's
baptism, which will be next saturday.

Our investigator pool
is still going strong. We have some cool people to teach and we're having a
good time.

I forgot my camera
today, so I don't have any pictures for you.

Hopefully everything
is okay, and you guys like the house. I would like to see what it looks like!
Also, it would be helpful to get the address.

Have things calmed
down yet with the move? Is there a new, permanent home? What's it like to live
in Utah? CONGRATS TO JASON GOING TO TAIWAN!!!

I don't have much
time, today has been pretty craaaazy and we have no time!

So last week, yes, I
got the package!!!! Thank you!!! I also got the card today too, so it was
perfect timing!! I also got a present or two from other people. One of our
investigators gave me a really nice Hungarian flag scarf a couple weeks ago,
and another investigator gave me a ton of chocolate and a Ukrainian hymn book!
I don't know why, but I have one now!

Also, the city of
Budapest gave me a birthday present too! The new Metro line opened up this last
weekend! It's awesome, you walk into a big, green spaceship on one stop, and
you end up in some crazy kryptonite cavern on the other side of town. I don't
know, it's a pretty cool experience. They opened it up for free for the first
few days, and there were soooo many people down there taking pictures and
stuff. Pretty exciting!

Also, our hot water
started working too! Yes! It had only been a couple weeks!

Other things that
happened last week- we went on splits with the Zone leaders. I spent the day
with a guy named Elder Christensen, and we had a blast. Tracting for hours is
not one of my favorite activities, but we made a good time out of it, and met
some pretty cool people on the street, too.

Then we got to eat
dinner and hang out with the zone leaders and another friend of mine in the
same city, which was nice.

The next day, we had district meeting. The lesson I gave was on "feeling
and responding to the Holy Ghost," and so we had an object lesson- I had
the mission president stand with his hands over his eyes, and someone threw a
nerf ball to him a couple of times. When he threw it, he'd say, "Catch!"
and then President would have to try and catch it with his cat-like reflexes.
At the end, once he was pretty familiar with catching the ball, he got a piece
of candy thrown to him instead. It was pretty fun. Then we somehow tied that presentation
into a lesson. While talking about how to explain what the Holy Ghost feels
like, one of the senior couples brought up a good question for investigators:
"How did you feel when your child first said, 'I love you?'" and that
feelings like that are very special and personal, and are from God. I liked
that example a lot.

Well, this was a
pretty exhausting week as far as the work goes. One night, I sat down on my bed
right when we got home, and I woke up in the middle of the night with my whole
suit on. I felt like the greenie from the Best 2 Years, haha.
Some exciting stuff happened this week... we had an old couple in the ward
invite us over, and they taught us how to home-make nokedli, a kind of noodles
that is really, really good.

One of our investigators
bought us each our own deck of Hungarian playing cards, and wanted to teach us
how to play Hungarian games, which was cool. Also, last week, she told us that
she wanted to get baptized before she ever even met with us, and told us that
since it took so long for me to call her (she had been going to english class
for a few months) and because of "other things" she doesn't feel as
close. We told her that we want to help her get close, and asked her to
consider a date as a goal for baptism. The next day, she told us that if we
would finally let her teach us her game, she would accept the date... I don't
think it works like that. So we are making sure that she wants to make changes
and come closer to Christ for realsies, haha, but she's super funny.

Well, we are trying to
work hard and have fun out here. I feel like we are working harder each week,
and it's cool to see the results, since we are having more people coming out of
the woodwork! Although I've been here for like 5 months, I would be really sad
if I leave next week... which is when our sisters go home... yikes!!!!

k, I seriously
have no time. Love you aaaaalllll,

Elder Younger

1. The Hungarian translation for John Locke's "A Treatise of Two Governments" with my friend Ricsi.

2. A Hungarian window.

3. Me on splits with Elder C.

4. Tracting in cool places

5. Us with the main guy who translated the BoM to Hungarian (The Joseph Smith of Hungary). They also taught us how to make nokedli (and he's still undefeated at the stick pull).

6. A guy and his lady friend, we teach. The man is a pretty interesting fella (you can ask Jason for details).

This has been a pretty
crazy week! We had a couple pretty cool events, like a big Zone Conference with
a general authority. It was pretty cool! We talked about having the Spirit
while teaching. It went well.

We also were able to
go on splits this last week! On Thursday night, we met up with the elders from
Érd, and I went over there with a guy who is about to go home. He is a super
hard worker, and we had a looot of fun! It was really cool because Érd was my
first area, so I was able to see some people and places that I hadn't seen in a
year! And I was able to sit down and go over old investigators and ward members
to see who I used to visit a lot, and who might have gotten lost in the cracks!
So hopefully some of my old friends might start meeting with the missionaries
again!

One of the best part
of splits was when we split up, and we made it to our apartment, I realized
that I had forgotten to give the phone to Elder Driggs! Haha. So the whole next
day, those 2 guys had a whole day to work without a phone! Haha.

Meeting back up at the
end of the day was really nerve racking, because we had agreed to meet in Érd,
but we didn't know exactly when they would come, or where to meet, so we just
waited in the apartment... if something happened, they couldn't let us know. We
waited till past 10pm until
they finally made it! Haha. Then we took the train home, which means that we
made it back around 11, and I was DEAD!

Because of a change in
the office elders, we got a 3rd companion for a few days, starting saturday.
He's a super cool kid who is a convert of less than 2 years, and he is a really
successful business guy. It was pretty cool to hang out with him and talk about
his conversion and stuff. I'm sure he tells his story all the time though. That
was super fun. We also had a really good program with him, and our investigator
Balázs, and another member named Zsolt, Balázs's best friend. We had a
testimony meeting, and Balázs taught me how to say a very simple prayer in
Russian, haha. It was cool, Zsolt said the opening prayer in German, and Balázs
said it in Russian.

At church on Sunday,
we had 2 investigators come to church for the first time! And one guy who used
to be an investigator a few years ago came up to me on Sunday. "Will you
be my elder?" Yes. He told me he wants to be baptized, which is cool. The
ward mission leader told me he used to do and say some pretty nutty things back
in the day though, so we're not sure. I've never actually met with him yet.

On Monday, we only
were able to meet with 1 person, who has normally been pretty hard to talk to,
and is wonderfully stubborn. We were able to talk to her in more depth about
baptism, and she brought up her biggest concern, and it was SO cool! I kind of
struggled to tell her a solution, then after a bit, I just knew what to say,
pulled out a random D+C scripture, and helped her find an answer to a big
question! That doesn't happen very often. I also told her I might leave this
week, and she figured so, so she brought me a going away/birthday
present- a scarf with the Hungarian colors! It's pretty awesome!

This morning, we were
planning on getting out of the apartment at like 4 to go up to Gellért Hegy, and
get crazy awesome pictures of the sunrise. But when the alarm went off, my
companion and I slept through it. Luckily, I did wake up to a text from someone
at 6:28, or I probably would have slept all day.
Well, we got our transfer calls! Our transfer is tomorrow, but Elder Driggs and
I are staying for another one! We've been together for 9 weeks, and we might
stay together for another 9!

K, last thought for
the day- Have any of you seen the old 10 minute church movie called The Bridge?
We watched it last week on Pday, and I hated it. But then I couldn't stop
thinking about it all week. It's probably the most moving video ever.

This week went by
pretty well, but the work here is a little slow. We had found a good number of
new people, and but most people don't really want to hear much after the
Restoration. That's what I love about the order of the lessons. The 1st lesson
weeds out the people who wouldn't be legit anyways when we start teaching the
cooler stuff. "Angels and visions and gold plates and getting answers
through prayer? You people are nuts!"

Then you get the other
extreme where people don't want to stop meeting with you. There was a guy that
we stopped meeting with about a month ago. I guess I could have handled the
situation better, because he has been very offended since then, and let me know
a few times that I'm the only missionary he's ever had a problem with. So that
was pretty lame. So I guess I'm a bad person, haha.

As for our other
investigators, we brought a member to each lesson with another progressing
investigator, and they are doing really well. I love having members with us,
because they can bear testimony that must seem more meaningful than from
punk kids who grew up in this, and they actually speak Hungarian, which is
super great.

But even though a lot
of our investigators are doing great with our commitments, most of them don't
come to church! I even bribed them with an "American treat" of banana
bread that I made for Sunday. Darn!

Our favorite
investigator is doing sooo good! He came up in his Ferrari this week, and drove
us home. It was pretty cool! He's one of my best friends here in Hungary, and I
think it will be sad when I leave Buda (which will probably be next week).

This week was a slow
one for sure. For the most part, the people we met with were semi-interested,
if at all, and the only people we could talk to while finding were already very
religious, and would try to convert us to their religion too, haha. I think
it's funny being a religious figure talking to other religious figures.
"Hello, can we talk to you about our religion?"
"Ehhh... no thanks. But can I talk to you about mine?"

Or my personal favorite: "Hello, can we talk to you abou-"
"What's God's name, huh?"

I did hear some good
news about some of my past areas though! That family that got baptized in Pápa
is still going strong! And a lady I found in my last area is going to be baptized
in April!

Our favorite
investigator came this week prepared for his lesson. Last week, we talked to
him about having a clean mouth, and he signed a contract to pay a little money
into a swear jar for this week. Well, he came to our program with 5,400 Forint,
and insisted on paying it to the General Missionary Fund! Wow!

Mom, I got your
letter! I am going to look up Ági this week and try and talk to her. Fun fact,
her address on the letter is right around the corner from where I live now.

And I will have a
letter sent to you guys soon, I'll try to get it done this week. Maybe I will
include translations from the notes in the letter.

And lastly, on our way
here to go emailing, we were looking for an ATM. I saw a sign for one, but when
we found it, there was a little bank that was still under construction. I asked
out loud the big question of my soul, "Are you kidding me?!" Then
some random lady who spoke English came up and asked if she could help us. She
saw our nametags, and told us that she loves Jesus Christ. She agreed to trade
numbers and wants us to meet with her and her boyfriend and talk more about the
Church. Maybe she will try and convert us too! I'm so excited!

I'm emailing on a
Tuesday again because there was another transfer! But nothing is happening with
us, but I guess I'm be the new "District Leader." So exciting! I get
to see everyone's numbers now.

This last week was
pretty slow. Last monday, we went to the stake president's house, and ate
dinner and gave a spiritual thought to their family. I tried to base the
thought off of the Title of Liberty lesson Elder Rogers did like 15 years ago,
so we brought an old white shirt I had, and my companion put it on and ripped
it. Afterwards we had everyone write down important things to remember like
family, friends, covenants, etc. Then we fastened it on a broom stick and had
one of the kids wave it around the room, haha. it was really fun!!

I got sick on Tuesday
which was not super fun. On Wednesday, we found a list of members in our area
whose names we didn't recognize, and "accidentally" tracted into
them. We found a cute old couple who were super awesome and fed us. They are
active, we just didn't know their names. They want us to come back to their
house this week or next to teach some of their family members. They also want
you all to know that "there is an old couple in Hungary that loves your
missionary very much." How nice!

Also, my scripture
case is a little cloth sack with Santa on it, and I told this elderly brother
that I love Christmas and I always want to keep the Christmas Spirit with me,
so on Sunday, he gave me a brand new tie with snowmen on it, and it sings and
blinks! Haha.

On Thursday, we had
interviews with President Smith, which was really good. Apparently I'm doing a
good job training, because I get to stay here with Elder Driggs for an extra
month!

I also had a good
friend come and visit. Ágoston, the kid from my last area who wrote you the
email for Christmas, came to our Advanced English class, so it was really fun.

We had a really good
Zone Training on Friday about teaching clearly. Then 4 of us went to our
favorite member-owned Mexican restaurant, and some random guy who used to live
here randomly paid for all of our lunches! Happy Valentines day to us!

On Saturday, 2
different investigators took us to both lunch and dinner, which was super
awesome too! At the beginning of the week, we planned to make 3 or 4 different
Hungarian dishes, but we've been fed so much that we weren't able to make all
of them!

The Bishop's son also
got baptized on Saturday, and the chapel was full of his classmates and their
families! Then we met with Balázs, our friend getting baptized in April, who is
doing super well!

Sunday was the craziest! After church, we went to eat lunch with some lady from
English Class. We go up to her house, and it looks like a huge, deserted
mansion. We were sure we had the wrong place, but unfortunately, she came to
let us in. Her dog, right at her heals, looked like it was about to die. I felt
so bad! It was bloated to the limit, and apparently had been torn to shreds by
her other dog. She led us into her house, that was full of weird, creepy
paintings, and smelled like 9 people died there last week. She fed us some
super spicy potatoe soup before the main dish of... Kocsonya. Please google
this and try not to throw up. You can't! (It's jello made from pig fat, with
random pig body parts in it. For example, our host got an entire foot,
including the hoof.) For dessert, we had some kind of delicious pudding.
Towards the end, she told us that there was both alcohol and coffee in there. I
got pretty irritated at her, because she knows that we don't consume alcohol or
coffee. I also just wanted to get out of there, because it was the nastiest
place I had ever been, so I took advantage of the fake call feature on my
phone, said something in English to nobody, and told her we had to leave to
"an important meeting." I don't feel bad about lying. It was just the
alcohol talking anyway.

Well, things are going
well here. Balázs, the guy getting baptized in April, is by far our coolest
investigator. He has a long time before he'll get baptized, but we meet with
him every day that he is in town (he lives in another city, but comes up every
weekend, and will probably move here soon). He loves hanging out with him, and
we have a good time. He and I have the same sense of humor, so we tell stupid
jokes to each other all the time, and my poor companion doesn't know what's
going on, haha. Also, he has a dirty mouth problem, so we are going to get him
a swear jar, and we made him sign a contract that he will do it! Haha!

Our other
investigators are being so lame! We just have to keep finding new ones! Haha.

I'm glad things seem
to be going good, with all the extra excitement of moving going on now! Yikes!

K we
don't have a ton of time today, but I'll give you guys the run down of the
week. It has been such an awesome week!!! Ever since I got Elder Driggs, things
have been going so well I think.

On Monday, we went
over to a family in the ward. The dad is American and served here like 10 years
ago, and the mom is Hungarian, and so the kids all speak both languages
perfectly. We had dinner and did the generic Armor of God lesson, and it went
really well. I love giving that lesson to little kids because they go nuuuts!
Then I gave them some sour gummy worms I got from Christmas and they went even
more nuts! Haha.

The lights went out in
our bathroom, so last week we went to a lightbulb store, and I forgot the word
for lightbulb. It was pretty embarrassing.

The ward had a huge
talent show night on Wednesday. It was pretty awesome! I'll send pictures
sometime.

We went to a
restaurant this week that doesn't accept card. My companion didn't have any
cash though, and I only had enough for myself, so he had to go across the mall
by himself to an ATM to get money. It was one of the loneliest times of my
life! Then on his way back, we found out that an LDS family was in the
restaurant too... they probably were wondering why we got separated,
haha.

Then we met with our
super legit investigator, Balázs. Last week, he had a dream that he got
baptized in April, and he actually dreamed that my friend Ricsi baptized him,
who he has never actually met. It was cool to introduce them on Sunday.

Balázs is super funny.
I felt bad during church because I sat with him and another investigator, and I
just wanted to joke around with him all during church. It was like being in
deacon's quorum again.

Also, on saturday,
some guy called me about our free english class and asked if I could help him
translate some letter he wants to write to the Barcelona soccer team. I said I
would try, and give it back to him if he came to church. He agreed. I actually
tried really hard for like an hour, but it was such a useless letter (about the
correlation between technology and skill in soccer games or something) and
there was such big vocabulary and weird grammar that I only got through a
paragraph that night, and it still didn't make much sense. He seemed sad that
I'm not that good at Hungarian... but he came to church and set up with us for
this week because he's interested in the church too!

Also, after church, a
really short senior elder I knew from my greenie area came up to me, and told
me he was going home, and offered to give me his super nice suit for free...
and it fits perfectly!! So, why not? Haha. So he'll leave it here when he
leaves on Monday.

As for investigators,
we have one progressing really well, who will be baptized on April 19th (instead of March 8th like we planned).
Another girl was on vacation and has been able to meet. She told us this week
that she feel like what we teach is true, but she doesn't think she'd get
baptized this year. She's scared of commitment and doesn't know if she'd be
able to live like the members here. So we'll see how it goes with her.

There's another guy
who we used to meet with who is super cool, but he wanted to take a break for a
bit, so I might call him this week or next.

All in all, most of
our investigators are doing well, and the ward is being very supportive too!
Elder Driggs is holding up really well, and learns a lot! I really enjoy
training him!

I'm
so glad that the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl, I have been rooting for
them all along (ever since I checked my emails today and saw who played).

Well I hope everything on the home front gets
settled quickly and the house business can get over with, haha. I can only
imagine how hard it must be to get everything going, but I'm glad that family
and ward members are there to help out!Yes, we hear things about hastening the work all
the time here. It's pretty exciting, huh? It's so much more exciting than just
doing some missionary work. It'shastening! Hustle!! Take the initiative!! Where's your
sense of urgency?? I'm glad that you are excited to do missionary work. I also
hope that there will be missionary work to do when I go home. I was hoping to
be able to go out with the elders in Omaha, so I wonder how much I'd be able to
do in Utah.

Well, as far as the missionary work goes here,
it goes. The work has been a little slow lately, but this week actually
zipped by really, really fast. We had a lot of cancelled appointments this
week, so we spent more time than usual searching for more people. We were able
to meet with 2 people who are progressing pretty well, and one other guy is out
of town with his member friend, so they went to church together there, and met
together with the elders there, too!Our investigators who disappeared over the last
few weeks are starting to come back, too! Yesterday at church was really fun,
because we went up to member after member to invite them to our programs this
week. If all goes well, we should have a member at almost every lesson! We have
been struggling lately with getting members to come with us, so I'm really
excited! haha.

As for interesting
stories, we only have a couple. Last week for P-day, we went up to the Máttyás
Templom, which is a big cathedral by the Buda castle. It was fun to
explore around there, even though I've been there a few times before too.

In the middle of the week, we met with an older guy at his house with his wife.
The guy is basically a member, comes to church every week, but doesn't want to
be baptized. I think he mostly just uses us to practice his english. Either
way, he invited us over and they fed us a delicious 3 course meal- fruit soup,
potatoes and sausage, and cake. Mmmmm.

Lastly, we had a little area book confusion. There is a record of an Argentinan
guy that said that sisters used to teach him, but the elders took
over the teaching a few years ago, and that he hadn't met with the missionaries
in 2 or 3 years, but he seemed pretty cool! So we called him and met him on
Saturday. I asked him if he remembers when the last time he met with
missionaries was, and he said, " Ohhh... Wednesday." Apparently, the
sisters had a record of the same guy, and they have been meeting with him for
like a month already. But we talked with him for a while, and he is a really
interesting guy. Halfway through the program he pulled out a little purse, took
out a little comb and started combing his mullet. He also said
"...no?" at the end of every sentence. My companion got bored and
started marking on his hand every time he said "no" and by the end,
had over 150 tallies on his palm, haha.

This week, I became a
trainer! My new companion is Elder Driggs from Orem, UT.

It's pretty
interesting being a trainer. It's kind of like any other time, except I do
basically all the talking in programs, and my comp keeps reminding me of all
the weird things about Europe that I've forgotten over the last year.
"WOW! The architecture here is so pretty!"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, architecture."

We had a great week
set up for my companion to come into the country, but all the legit people
ended up disappearing or forgetting or going out of town for a few weeks. And
while we did have a pretty slow week with the people that we already teach,
we've had some crazy experiences finding people!
I took my companion out around our area to show him around, and we would stop
people occassionally to talk to them. We found a couple really cool people
within an hour, and after we went home, we even got a call from some lady we
just barely stopped. She changed her mind, and wants to meet! Other people who
got tracted into and talked with the missionaries a few months ago have been
wanting to meet again as well! We even got an internet referral from a lady
whose boyfriend is investigating in Massachusetts somewhere! (She wanted to
meet until she called me and cancelled like 10 minutes ago.)

So, Elder Olsen found a sssuuuuuuppppeerr awesome guy in his first area, who
ended up getting baptized not too long ago. Well, he was up in the city for
work and came to church a couple weeks ago, and brought his friend who was
cool, but not too interested. But then the friend came to church by
himself last week, and wanted to meet!
We met with him yesterday, and he told us about some crazy experiences he has
had, including being in a coma for several days. Ever since then he has wanted
to change. He sees how happy his friend has been and how much he changed since
meeting with the missionaries and getting baptized, and he wants that too! He
has been reading the Book of Mormon and some other church things that his
friend had, and he told me that he wants to be baptized by the year mark of his
coma (which was last April), so we set a date for March 8th, dad's birthday! We
never know what kind of influence we can have on our friends. It's always good
to just be there for them.

That has probably been
the biggest news of the week- we haven't been able to meet with too many
people, but we have been able to find a lot of great people this week. Most of
our really progressing investigators also come back to town next week, so
hopefully all the people we've found and all the people coming back will yield
a really good week this time around!!

Well,
I guess I should say that the first big news I have here is that we just got
our transfer calls. I am staying in Buda, and I will be TRAINING! My poor
companion, Elder Olsen only had 4 weeks in Budapest! Haha. But at least he got
to have Christmas and New Years here. I am really enjoying the results of this
transfer! A lot of really awesome people are moving into our district, and I'm
not district leader (which means I don't have to give trainings every week)!
Haha. Also, 3 of 5 guys in my group are training right now, and I will get to
see them at the big meeting tomorrow. Tomorrow also marks my year in the
country mark, so that just adds to the craziness!

This last week was
pretty hard for me though. It seems like everyone I met with last month
disappeared, but they always tell me to call back... and don't answer their
phones. Or they set up with us, and don't show up. Or they drop us. Besides a
couple really good investigators, most everyone has been a really big punk!
Plus just the fatigue of everything else has been driving me crazy, and I
probably would have just given up a few days this last week if my greenie fire
filled companion didn't push me along.

We did have some cool
things happen though- We made Paprikás Csirke on Monday, and it turned out
soooo goood! I bought a voice recorder to use during lessons (if the
investigators let me) and we can go home and review all the words we didn't
understand/ mistakes we made, and to send home voice recordings! If it works, I
want to send one or two home today!
We also went tabling for a little bit one day, and met 2 suuuper crazy guys.
One came up to us and told us that we were hypnotized by the Russians. He told
me to google "hypnotism" and said that I would thank him one day!
Another guy kept talking to us about nothing for 45 minutes, and gave us
an "ancient Hungarian saying" from the "original Hungarian
religion." His words of wisdom were: The taste of the Lord is sunlight.
Take it as you will.

Something else
awesome- 3 friends from Miskolc, my last area, came up to get their Patriarchal
blessings, which was super awesome! One of those friends is dating our ward
mission leader here, and he proposed to her that night! I'm so happy for them!
I also got to see Ágoston, who is the one that emailed you guys for me. We even
went to lunch the next day!

So, Elder Olsen
found a sssuuuuuuppppeerr awesome guy in his first area, who ended up getting
baptized not too long ago. Well, he was up in the city for work and came to
church a couple weeks ago, and brought his friend who was cool, but not
too interested. But then just this week, his friend to church by himself and
wants to meet with us now! Crazy, huh?

I also got a letter
this week from Brent, with a story that he wrote in 1st grade! Haha. Mr. Talks
all the time. What a stupid story!

Yesterday, was by far
the best day of the week. In the afternoon, we went to the church to meet a guy
for the first time who we had talked to on the street a couple weeks ago. He
didn't show up because he is "in Trannsylvania for work" so we hit
the streets for a time. The first guy we talk to on the street spoke perfect
english and at first didn't want to talk to us, but Elder Olsen is such a
charismatic speaker, he became pretty interested and we traded phone numbers
and set up a time to meet! Soon, we had a lesson with a recent convert, who is
a 40 year old lady. Afterwards, she offered us a ride home, and I accepted, but
my companion reminded me that in the White Handbook it says not to accept rides
from just one lady, so we were good missionaries and walked home. On the way
back, in the exact same spot where we met the other guy, we stopped a British
dude who was overly enthused to talk to us. He was talking really fast, and
kept saying how much he
lovestheChurchofJesusChristofLatterDaySaintsandhewantstobuyabunchofmaterials
from us or something. We were like, "Calm down, we can give that stuff for
free!" We were kinda sketched out, but we traded numbers and set up a time
to meet on the same day as the other guy. Then on the way home, we also met the
Sisters' investigator, and one of our own investigators and his girlfriend, who
is a member. All I could think was, "Why would I stop streeting now, maybe
everything I touch will turn to gold!" but I was quickly humbled, because
that wasn't the case. Darn you, real life!

Well, this week was on fire for us! Yea, we have every reason to rejoice
because of the fruits of our labours. The following is a day-by-day look at the
week. It's kind of long though, I guess, so I bolded all the important stuff:

On Monday, went tracting and met an older lady who asked us to come back on
Thursday. Before our next program with her, she had already read a good amount
of the Book of Mormon, and knew it was true. Then on Thursday, we taught her a
full Restoration lesson, and invited her to be baptized, and she accepted a
date for the 15th of February! Since I have never had anyone agree to baptism
within 3 days of meeting them, that was definitely an awesome experience!
That night, we ran into a random guy who turned out to be a member! He hasn't
been to church in 10 years and stopped us to ask if there was a church new
years party! Hopefully he will want to start coming back!!

With that great start to the week, we celebrated our extended p-day New Years
eve by going up to Gellért Hill, a very historic/scenic hill by the river Duna
(the 2nd time in a week for me and Olsen) with the other elders in the city,
and we had a good time. That night, we also cranked our clocks forward 1.5
hours and went nuts at midnight before going to bed at 10:30. Apparently the
drunks on the street were partying even harder at the real midnight, because my
comp couldn't sleep. I slept like a rock though!

Wednesday
was more time off, so we just relaxed and wrote letters and stuff, if I
remember right. Thursday was cool too, but nothing really big happened. We met
some awesome people on the street who didn't want to give us their numbers
though. We're planting seeds, I guess!

On Friday, the landlady came over to replace a
bunch of things and fix a little ant problem. Brent, be proud of me. The whole
time I was saying stupid Hungarian puns, and my landlady didn't understand my
jokes. She probly just thinks I'm an idiot, haha. Like, when she was pouring
ant poison around, I said something like, "The ant's voices are loud
(hangos a hangya hangja)," and she was all like, "No, no, no. Ant's
don't have voices!" Jeepers, lady! Haha.

I also got a call from an investigator from
my last area. It was the mom of the boy that I baptized in November, and she
asked me to baptize her on the 18th of this month!!!Sadly, the mission president didn't give me
permission, but I'm so happy because she had been going through a very hard
time and is getting baptized so soon now! Hopefully it all works out!!

Well, that night, after a lesson, the senior couple in charge of the YSA asked
me to give the spiritual thought at the Institute dinner that night pretty last
minute. She gave me a Hungarian Bible and some verses to read from Matthew 13
(in English so I knew what it said). It was pretty nerve-wracking! Haha. I kept
forgetting the word for "roots", so as I'm winging the lesson, I'm
forced to tell everyone to strengthen their "spiritual
thingamajiggers." "Ppsssst! It's
gyökér!" "Yeah... that."
I calmed my nerves after that by eating at our favorite mexican restaurant,
Gringos Amigos, that's owned by a member .We have "buy 9, get 1 free menu
item" coupons... only 3 more to go... I've already blown half my money
there, so I'm committed now!

On Saturday, we had English class, and met a new student who also happened to
be a long-lost member from a few years ago. We met with him after english class
(at first I didn't know he was a member. Then, during the whole program, I
thought he was the guy who went to the New Years party... he's not). He came to
church though!!

Also on Saturday, we
had a program with a younger guy who is really searching for the truth. We
invited the mission president to the lesson, and it went really well! He
accepted a baptismal date for Feb 22, assuming he receives an answer by then.
I'm so excited for him because I know that he will get an answer, because he is
really searching for the truth- he always has good questions, does all of our
commitments, and reads everything we ask and more (he read all of 3 Nephi out
of curiosity, and is working on Gospel Principles now). Now it's really up to
him to keep the commitments/commandments we teach him, and work toward his
answer!

Yesterday, Sunday was
also an awesome day! The first 2 hours of church were awesome!! We had planned
to have a program with an investigator and a member right after church, but our
investigator had to go somewhere afterward, and asked if we could meet during
the 3rd hour. This was an important enough program (we were going to challenge
her to baptism as well) so we invited our member friend to skip relief society
and join us. Her best friend is an investigator though, so she had to bring her
friend to the program too, of course!
So the 5 of us skipped our meetings, found a tiny unused room, and learned
about the plan of salvation! It went really well!! The member was a pretty recent convert and her
friend is getting baptized in 2 weeks, so it was cool to have them talk about
the big plan, and baptism with our friend.At least at the beginning- the conversation went from Plan of
Salvation to eternal marriage to boys, and that's about where we lost control
of the lesson because three 25-year old Hungarian girls can talk SO FAST when
they need to. Yikes! So we just told them we had no time, and got out of there.But our investigator said that she loves what
we are teaching, and feels that it is right for her. We didn't get to set a
date for baptism, but she wants to work toward getting her answer!!Wooo!!

We also finished off
the week with American pancakes, peanut butter, and real life, authentic maple
syrup flavored sugar water! Yuummmmmmm!!!!

Well this has been my
last week. Sorry it's kinda long, we just had an awesome week! This might have
been one of the best weeks of my mission so far!! We've lost a few cool
investigators, but we're finding more, and the ones we have are doing so well!Please pray for our friends here!!!

These last couple
weeks have been sooo awesome!!! We had a 48 hour extended P-day from Christmas
eve to the day after Christmas. On Christmas eve, we went out to a main square
and caroled for a few hours! It was really fun. People kept coming up to us and
thanking us for making their day, and it wasn't hard to stand out there for a
long time, since it was like a good 6O degrees the whole time, haha.

With our free time around Christmas, my companion and I went exploring
throughout the city, visiting all the super touristy sites we don't get to see
much as missionaries. The weather was super nice, so it was perfect for taking
the pictures that I will send you!

Before and after Christmas, I also got a lot of cards and some goodies that I
am extremely grateful for!!! I got an awesome package from G+G Young, and I got
cards from a byu buddy, and Christian as well as the Burtons, and from the
Geddes and Stone families! Please tell G/G Young and Aunt Lori thank you so
much for the gifts!!

Yup, and on Christmas day, we went to a member family, and they fed us lunch
and let us skype there! After skyping, they wouldn't let us leave, so we had
dinner there as well! And we brought the giant Reese's cups for the dessert!
Haha.

Friday last week, we had a few programs set up,
and all of them spoke english! One person didn't show up, but we met with 2 of
our friends and it went really well! I really like teaching in English. I feel
like I can be myself more, and it's a lot easier to teach clearly. Both lessons
went really well, and we could feel the spirit really strongly. And both of
those people came to church, and one even brought her mom!

Church went extremely
well on Sunday! All the talks and lessons went really well, and the members
were making friends with the investigators! It was a really positive day!

I don't know what else
it is, but it also seems like whenever we go tracting or streeting, we've found
some pretty legit people to talk to, and they are all between 25-35 years old
and speak english. I think I might forget how to speak Hungarian in a few
weeks! Haha.

And we had a baptism a
couple weeks ago! She had already been meeting for a year before I got here,
and I wasn't even here when they set her baptismal date, so I really played no
part whatsoever in her conversion, but I've included some pictures!

Things are going
really positively here, hopefully it is going that way back at home as well!!